This is the fourth book in the Deborah Crombie series about Duncan Kincaid, an upper-class Scotland Yard superintendent, and Sergeant Gemma James, his partner and lover. The fact that I have not read the others in this series did not prevent me from enjoying this book. In this fourth book Vic McClellan, Duncan's ex-wife and a member of the English faculty at Cambridge, is writing a biography of Lydia Brooke, a Cambridge poet whose death five years earlier was attributed to suicide. Convinced that Lydia didn't kill herself, Vic asks Duncan to look into the poet's death. Duncan is reluctant, because of his personal feelings for Vic—she left their marriage 12 years earlier. But based on her evidence he is convinced that there may be some questions about the death. Soon he is even more certain when Vic is murdered. Assisted by Gemma, he sets out to find the killer. I found this book to be fast paced, well written (not always the case with mysteries), with a number of twists and turns. I also enjoyed the developing relationship between Duncan and Gemma, particularly as it is effected by Duncan’s feelings for his ex-wife. This is a series I plan on continuing to read. 4 out of 5 stars. ( )

I love this series, but found this book to be my least favorite of the ones I've read so far. The intertwining of all the literary allusions, and the need to consult literature to solve this one was a bit of a stretch. Still, I enjoyed getting some backfill on Kinkaid's previous marriage, and his relationship to the young boy Kit.

It's definitely worth reading in sequence, but only as a placeholder to get to the next one ( )

Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James face new challenges as they must solve a literary mystery involving Duncan's ex-wife. This is one of the best of the series and also a stellar example of the literary mystery (by which I mean, a mystery involving literature). Highly recommended. ( )

Wikipedia in English (1)

"Deborah Crombie might be the most British of American mystery novelists," said an astute reviewer in reference to Mourn Not Your Dead, the fourth book in her excellent series about Duncan Kincaid, an inoffensively upper-class Scotland Yard superintendent, and Sergeant Gemma James, his rougher-edged partner and lover. In addition to her finely tuned ear for the subtler nuances of Britspeak, Crombie--a resident of Richardson, Texas--achieves a rare and therefore enviable balance between the details of her characters' private lives and the plot of each particular book. That delicate balance is especially welcome in Dreaming of the Bones, when Kincaid's former wife, Dr. Victoria McClellan, threatens his personal and professional equanimity. A Cambridge don, Vic has been writing a biography of poet Lydia Brooke, who claimed kinship to the distinguished World War I bard Rupert Brooke, and whose suicide five years before is now beginning to appear suspiciously like murder.

The Scotland Yard duo of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, who are investigating the murder of a woman poet, discover a clue in her poetry. A look at a Cambridge literary set. By the author of Mourn Not Your Dead.